Injuries often result in an injured person becoming physically incapable of self-transport to a medical facility. For example, trauma may result in unconsciousness or dizziness. In addition, self-transport may aggravate the injuries and lead to additional complications. Hence it is often necessary or desirable for medical personnel to transport an injured individual ("patient") to a medical facility while that patient is prone and possible partially or completely immobilized. To this end, so called litters or stretchers are typically employed.
There are several features which are either necessary or desirable for such an apparatus. First, it must be recognized that the patient may need to be transported between difficult to access locations, and that it may therefore be necessary for medical personnel to carry the patient for significant distances. Therefore the apparatus must be capable of supporting a patient for prolonged periods of time. It should also be sufficiently rigid to support the patient in an immobilized condition under circumstances where transport without such immobilization is likely to result in further injury or complications.
The apparatus should therefore also be lightweight, to decrease the overall load to the persons carrying it. In addition, it must be easily portable to the location of the patient prior to use and easily stored for future use. Ideally, it should be easily made available to medical personnel who are not expecting to encounter injured people at a specific location or time.
Further, the patient might be located in water as a result of an accident. Thus, it would be desirable for the transport apparatus to provide some buoyancy in such situations, to assist in the transport of the patient.
In addition, the apparatus should be capable of being easily cleaned. Patients often bleed during transport, and the apparatus should be capable of being cleaned between uses to provide an environment which is not unnecessarily conducive to infection.
Diagnosis of patients often requires the patient be the subject of procedures such as x-ray scanning, CT scanning, and the like. These procedures often require that the patient be placed within or adjacent to a large, fixed apparatus. It would be desirable for the transport apparatus to permit such placement without the necessity of removing the apparatus from the patient, as such removal may lead to greater injury, as mentioned above.
One apparatus long known to the art is the canvas stretcher. A rectangular canvas or cloth piece is attached at parallel sides to elongated rods. Medical personnel may lift the stretcher by means of handles at the ends of the rods. The stretcher may be collapsed by placing the rods together.
The stretcher has only a few of the desired features. It is relatively lightweight and portable. It does not interfere with some diagnostic procedures. Unfortunately, it is also not rigid enough to immobilize patients effectively. This non-rigidity often necessitates additional devices such as splints and boards to provide the necessary stiffness. Such stiffening devices require additional time to attach, and add significantly to the weight of the patient-apparatus combination which must be carried by the medical personnel. In addition, the degree of immobilization needed to prevent compounding of the existing injuries may not be achievable.
Alternatively, a rigid board ("litter board") or other device may be used to transport the patient. Such devices are more rigid than a stretcher, enabling better opportunity for protecting and immobilizing the patient. Such a device, however, is often heavy, hard to clean, cumbersome, and difficult to transport to and from the site of the patient. Moreover, such devices typically utilize metallic components which interfere with x-rays and the like.
Broadly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved litter board.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a portable, lightweight and yet rigid litter board.
It is a yet further object of the present invention to provide a buoyant litter board.
It is a yet further object of the present invention to provide a litter board which may be easily cleaned.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a little board which permits diagnostic scanning of a patient without removal from the litter board.
These and other objects of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the invention and the accompanying drawings.